Yapta: A Smarter Way To Travel
Yapta, a new way to track and compare airline ticket prices has opened its doors to the public. The private beta, which launched a while back, is now open to anyone, though the service is still in beta.
Yapta is a bit different than other services we’ve reviewed, like FareCast. Rather than plugging directly into the airline system as FareCast and Expedia do, Yapta simply tracks the data from other sites.
Yapta currently supports a handful of airfare aggregators like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity as well as over half a dozen individual airline sites. Yapta says that it will be adding more sites as the beta period progresses.
To use Yapta you can either enter your travel data by hand and search flights, or for batch tracking there is a browser add-on. Currently Yapta only offers an add-on for IE, but the download page says a Firefox version is coming soon.
The Yapta browser add-on injects code into pages when you browse sites like Expedia (see screenshots below) with links to “tag” the selected flight in Yapta. Once you’ve tagged a flight, Yapta tracks the price and watches for changes.
If a price changes Yapta will send you an email notification.
The money saving part revolves around that fact that the airline industry offers what is known as the “guaranteed airfare rule.” This rule says which says that if you buy a ticket directly from an airline and the price drops afterward, you’re eligible for a refund.
The airlines seem to make the voluntary offer on the basis that almost no one is aware of it, or has the time to actually track and take advantage of the offer. Yapta’s killer feature, as it were, is that it handles the tracking and notification for you.
Unfortunately it doesn’t automate the process of contacting the airline, for that you’re on your own.
Yapta is simple to use and can in theory save you time and money. The principle is very similar to Offertrax, but rather than retail prices, Yapta is in the airfare market.
Unfortunately the lack of a Firefox plugin is a bit of deal breaker for me. However, when a Firefox version of the Yapta Tracker arrives I do think that Yapta, in combination with FareCast will be a boon for budget minded travelers.
Using the Yapta browser plug-in to search on Expedia.
Once you select a flight, just click the Yapta button and it will show up in your Yapta account.
The main Yapta tracking page shows all the flights you’re currently watching.
